Baby Bree is going home as court returns daughter to medical marijuana patients

Steve and Maria Green say they did nothing illegal or to warrant the removal of their daughter, Bree (6 months).

Jake Neher/ MPRN

Two medical marijuana patients have won a legal battle to have their infant daughter returned to them.

Today, an Ingham County judge OK'd a deal that will allow an infant girl, known as Baby Bree, to be returned to her parents.

State Child Protective Services removed Baby Bree from the couple's home after learning her parents are medical marijuana patients. CPS argued the Greens had violated a provision of the state’s medical marijuana law. Steven Green uses medical marijuana to treat his violent seizures. Maria Green uses medical marijuana to treat her multiple sclerosis. The child had spent the past two months in her grandmother’s care.

“I’m just real excited that the Greens are able to bring Baby Bree home tonight, have her sleep in her own bed. That’s been our goal from Day One,” says Josh Covert, the Green family’s attorney. “I think everybody involved in just ecstatic she’s coming home.”

As part of the agreement, the Greens will attend parenting classes. If the Greens fulfill all the requirements of the deal, the entire matter will be dropped.

Attorney Josh Covert is glad the deal was struck returning Baby Bree. But Covert is not optimistic this will be the last such case involving a medical marijuana patient.

Covert says it’s difficult for judges and other officials to see marijuana as any other than an illegal drug.

“I think it takes some time for them to come to grips with the fact that the people of the state of Michigan have approved it for medicinal purposes through the voter initiative of 2008,” says Covert.

The Green family is due back in court for a review hearing in January.